Wayne Dumbleton

Description

The Secretary Bird, Sagittarius serpentarius, is a 4' tall bird of prey from Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savannah where it hunts it's prey on foot. Prey consists of insects, small mammals, lizards, snakes, young birds, bird eggs, and sometimes dead animals killed in brush fires. They can either catch prey by chasing it and striking with the bill, or stamping on prey until it is rendered stunned or unconscious enough to swallow.Studies of this latter strategy have helped construct the possible feeding mechanisms employed by dinosaur-like 'terror birds' that once walked the earth five million years ago.